


o great sights upon this state

by somethingdifferent



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: (well she and scott could be childhood friends but probs not), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, Ambiguous/Open Ending, F/F, Femslash, except that cosima is friends with delphine and scott and they're all kids, i sort of imply that the clones are still a thing, ignore me i am rambling, this??? is weird???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-12
Updated: 2014-09-12
Packaged: 2018-02-17 01:27:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2291873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somethingdifferent/pseuds/somethingdifferent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I'll show you daring.</p>
<p>[cosima/delphine; camp friends au]</p>
            </blockquote>





	o great sights upon this state

**Author's Note:**

> First time writing Cosima/Delphine AND first time writing femslash, so please please please be gentle.
> 
> As soon as I heard [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBMwwJMkcRA) song, I knew I had to write fic for it.

_deep in the tower, the prairies below_  
_i can tell you, the telling gets old_

SUFJAN STEVENS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the end, she doesn't get bitten by a snake. It is something Cosima had worried over in the days before going to camp, worried over for no reason other than her own paranoia. Her mother had called it anxiety over leaving home for the first time. Scott figured it had something to do with the biology books she was reading.

"If I do get bitten by a snake," she asks Delphine on their third day, "would you save me?"

"Yes," she replies, her accented voice lilting and oh-so casual, tying her curled hair behind her neck. "I'd suck the poison out of you."

 

 

 

 

::

 

 

 

 

They wade out into the water. The rest of the girls are doing arts and crafts, but Cosima had decided to opt out in favor of looking for frogs in the creek behind the cabins, and Delphine had followed.

The bottom of her jean shorts get wet, but she hardly notices. Delphine's hair looks gold in the fading light.

"Cosima," Delphine calls from a few feet away. "I think I found something." She lifts her hands out of the water, pulling up moss and stones. They drop back into the creek, splashing against her pale legs. She maneuvers back over to the grass, opening her cupped hands enough for Cosima to see the frog trapped between her palms.

"You found one," she says, her voice betraying something like wonder, and Delphine smiles.

 

 

 

 

 

::

 

 

 

 

Scott had always been so confused by her.

"You've never had a crush on _anyone_  at school?" he'd asked, incredulous. "But isn't that, like, some sort of rule? For girls?"

"What would you know about girls?" Cosima retorted, and he hadn't been able to respond to that.

 

 

 

 

::

 

 

 

 

"You're gonna be what, fifteen?"

Delphine grins. "Sixteen. I look young, _cherie_?"

"No, I just - I thought we were the same age, for some reason."

"I am only here for the summer, Cosima. We wouldn't be in the same grade."

"No, I know. I know."

Delphine swings her legs against the bank of the creek. A wasp lands on Cosima's arm, and she watches, fascinated, as it crawls, pauses, and finally takes flight once more. The woods, she thinks suddenly, are that kind of verdant green that makes you want to cry.

 

 

 

 

::

 

 

 

 

Her aunt had a girlfriend. Cosima's mother had let them stay at the apartment, in the guest bedroom, while their house was being remodeled.

Cosima took a break from watching cartoons long enough to turn and ask, five years old and already much too curious, "Are you and the lady best friends?"

"Yes," she had said in reply. "I love her very much. You should be best friends with anyone you love so much, huh, baby?"

She nodded, distracted once more by Wile E. Coyote, and watched as he ran straight off a cliff, gravity, as it does, only beginning to work once he looked down.

 

 

 

 

::

 

 

 

 

She does her eyeliner in the cracked mirror in the cabin bathroom. All of the girls are always jealous, how already she has perfected the wings, the black sweep under her eye without getting too much on her lashes.

"Your makeup is always so beautiful," Delphine remarks as they get ready for the day, side-by-side. "I don't know how your hand is always so steady."

"Practice," Cosima says, grinning easily. Delphine shakes her head, blonde wisps of hair coming loose from her ponytail. "Hey," she hears herself saying, "want to ditch class today and go over to the creek? I've got some food, and we can look for fish, and - "

"Cosima," Delphine interrupts, voice serious, "you had me at food."

 

 

 

 

::

 

 

 

 

Cosima has never had a crush on anyone at school, so she wasn't technically lying to Scott. There had been a boy, once, in seventh grade, he was exceptionally beautiful, eyes and lips and all, but he was seventeen and worked at the movie theater and she moved on pretty quickly. And she thinks there had been someone else once. A girl with dark hair and darker eyes working behind the counter at the ice cream shop who always gave Cosima an extra scoop.

That, she didn't tell anyone about. It's easier, sometimes, keeping these things to yourself.

 

 

 

 

::

 

 

 

 

"Have you seen the tire swing? Over by the deeper end of the water?"

Delphine glances over worriedly. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"Not if you're careful," Cosima informs her flippantly. "Besides, where's the fun if there's no danger?" She lets her hair loose, the dark strands falling over her shoulders, and tugs at the hem of her shirt until it pulls off over her head.

"I'll race you."

 

 

 

 

::

 

 

 

 

"What are you gonna be when you grow up?" she had asked him once, and Scott hadn't paused a moment before replying, "Oh, well, my parents want me to be a doctor, right? Like medical? But I was reading up on all these new advances in medicine and technology and stuff, and I'm thinking something with genetics. Like, can you imagine? Cutting edge shit, all of it, and I could be the one to make it advance even further."

"No," she sighed, "I mean, what are you gonna _be_?"

"Oh." The smile slipped off his face for a moment, and then, "Well, I don't know. Do you?"

Cosima shook her head.

"I think that's sort-of alright though, don't you?"

The ice cream in her hand was melting, dripping over her fingers. Cosima licked it off and glanced at the girl behind the counter.

 

 

 

 

::

 

 

 

 

Delphine strips to her underwear as she paddles uncertainly through the water. Her bra has a pink bow in the middle.

Cosima can't see her from the hill above, the sun shining too brightly in her eyes, her glasses placed carefully on their pile of clothes at the shore.

"Okay, you wimp," she calls to the vague golden shape of Delphine. "I'm gonna jump in now."

She takes a breath, grabs the rope, and leaps into the creek.

The water is colder than she expected, and Cosima shivers as she swims over to where Delphine is treading water. This close she can actually make out the details of her face, the curve of her brow, the mole on her chin.

"You should've jumped," she says, half-heartedly angry.

"Forgive me, _cherie_." Delphine smiles. "You were beautiful when you jumped, no? Very daring."

Cosima laughs. "I'll show you daring," she says, and kisses Delphine.

Her lips, opened in surprise, are as cold as the water between them.

 

 

 

 

::

 

 

 

 

"What if," Cosima had asked her mother once, "you're different from everyone else, and you don't know why."

Her mother had laughed, pulled her dreadlocked hair back from her neck. Cosima hooked her necklace, and her mother adjusted it against her collarbone.

"I'd say you should stop trying to understand, sweetheart," she had said. "It's not so bad anyway. One day, you might even be grateful for it."

 

 

 

 

::

 

 

 

 

The scrap of paper in her hand has Delphine's phone number.

"Keep it touch," she says, smiling, her fingers brushing Cosima's hand as she pulls away. "It was a very nice summer."

Cosima nods, grinning in return.

She holds onto that scrap of paper for the whole ride home.

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
